JEFFREY MORGAN'S MEDIA BLACKOUT #418.19!

Slayer - Still Reigning (American) :: The scariest thing about this live show is how blood-splattered Slayer bassist Tom Araya now looks exactly like blood-spitting KISS bassist Gene Simmons.

Britney Spears - Greatest Hits: My Prerogative (Jive) :: Of course they float, what did you think?

Rod Stewart - Live at the Royal Albert Hall (J) :: When Woody joins in for "Stay With Me" and "Gasoline Alley" you almost find a reason to believe that a Faces reunion would be a good idea. Then you realize how shot the singer's voice is.

Various Artists - Punk Rock Holocaust (Springman) :: Cheesier than a Vivid porno and gorier than the collected works of Lucio Fulci. If all you need is a holocaust to make your day complete, then you'll enjoy watching everyone from the Horrorpops to Andrew WK getting brutally butchered.

 Dead Boys - Live At CBGB 1977 (Music Video Distributors) :: Watching this rare video of Stiv and the Boys is about as close to the experience of being in a '70s punk club as you're likely to get. And I was in enough of them back then to know.

The History Of Iron Maiden - Part One: The Early Years (EMI) :: Five whopping hours of concerts and videos that only cover the years 1980 to 1983. Comprehensive? Yeah, I'd say so.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Bill Hicks - Live (Rykodisc) :: Cleese loves him. Letterman loves him. Leno loves him. Belzer loves him. So why haven't you heard of comedian Bill Hicks before? Because he died in 1994 before you got a chance to. But as these three performances show, he had a deadly delivery that's a cross between goofy sweathog Travolta and manic maniac Kinison.

Be seeing you!